St. Stephen the New

Welcome to Hill Country Homilies. Weekly homilies from Holy Annunciation

Orthodox Church in Liberty Hill, Texas. Holy Annunciation is an

old calendar Orthodox church sharing the faith of the Apostles

and the love of Christ with all who seek His truth. Now,

let's listen to this week's homily.

And of the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit Layers,

Jesus Christ, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Tonight

we commemorate Saint Stephen the New, a confessor and martyr

who lived during one of the darkest periods in church history,

the Iconoclastic Persecution of the eighth century. Saint Stephen was

born in Constantinople in the year seven point fifteen to

pious Orthodox parents who had dedicated him to God the

Blackerne Church. He grew up during the reign of Leo

the Assarium, when a terrible heresy seized upon the Empire,

and this heresy denied the veneration of the Holy icons

and its adherents, who took much of their lead from

the Muslim invaders that were pressuring the edges of the

Empire at that time. But with imperial support, the adherence

to the heresy of iconoclasm controlled the highest positions in

both the Church and the state. And this is so

important for us to understand because I think many people

who call themselves Orthodox have forgotten that heresy can take

root in the highest places of the Church. We can

want to go any further back from the First Ecumenical

Council and Arianism, where the heresy of Aryan was confessed

by eighty percent of the Orthodox bishops, so called Orthodox bishops.

But yet when assembled in council under the guys of

the Holy Spirit, the true faith, the Trinitarian faith, was confessed.

Never about numbers, It's about truth. And when heresy takes

root inside of the Church, standing for the truth becomes

more than just our obligation. It becomes a balance upon

wishing us weigh the truth of God against the suffering

that may be set us if we stand for that truth.

When he was just sixteen, Saint Stephen's family fled to

Vithenia and he was placed under the spiritual guidance of

the Monk John on Mount Exensios, where he labored for

over fifteen years as the attendant for the Elder John.

And after the Elder John reposed, Saint Stephen himself became

an abbot founding a monastery that became a beacon of

the Orthodox faith. But the persecution of the Iconic duels

those who supported the veneration of Icons intensified under Constantine Kapranamus,

who was an even fiercer enemy of Orthodoxy than the

emperors had come before. And Kapronamus convened a false council

of three hundred and fifty eight bishops that pronounced an

anathema on the veneration of the Holy Icons, and the Emperor,

hearing of Saint Stephen's fame and his open encouragement of

icon veneration, determined that they would either convert him to

iconoclasm or he would have to be destroyed. And so

they tried with bribes, and they tried with threats, and

they tried slander or even falsely accusing him of sin

with a nun who heard her self died under torture.

Rather than beare Falt's witness against Saint Stephen, they imprisoned him,

they destroyed his monastery, they exiled him to the islands

of the Sea of Moman. But he would not compromise,

and at his trial he boldly demonstrated the logic of

icon veneration. And he said, just as trampling the Emperor's

image on a coin dishonors the Emperor himself, so dishonoring

the icons of Christ dishonors Christ. And to prove his point,

he spat on the Emperor's coin and trampled it under

his feet. And he was seized and imprisoned for doing

that exact act, proving his very point. And even though

he was based in prison with three hundred and forty

other confessors of the faith, Saint Stephen organized prayer and

worship in the prison, according to the typical on basically

changing the dungeon into its own monastery and finding the

Emperor sent soldiers who dragged him out, dragged him with

them through the streets, and eventually murdered him and threw

his body into a common pit of criminals. But the

heavens testified to his holiness. It said that a fiery

cloud appeared over Mount Auxentios, and deadly hail descended upon

the capitol where the Emperor had taken these gross steps.

But brothers and sisters, here's what we must learn from

Saint Stephen. When the world pressures us to compromise our

orthodox faith, and they will because they don't accept the

things that we say should be. And whether that pressure

is in the form of flattery or threats, or inconveniences,

we must respond with the same clarity and courage that

Saint Stephen showed to his accusers. In our own time,

we face pressures to water down our faith, to accept

false of humanism, to embrace innovations that contradict the holy tradition,

andike the iconoclass who held a false council with hundreds

of bitious. Today's errors often come dressed in ecclesiastical clothing.

So this week I challenge you to identify one area

where you have been tempted to compromise on the faith.

Maybe it's keeping silent when modernist errors are spoken, or

being asked or forced to participate in something that conflicts

with our orthodox conscience, like Saint Stephen at his trial,

And challenge you to speak the truth clearly, even if

at first it can only be done in your own

home or among those that you trust, or if you

cannot yet speak, at least refuse to participate in the compromise. Remember,

Saint Stephen didn't just argue theology, he physically demonstrated his

conviction when he trampled on the coin of the Emperor.

Our faith must be equally concrete and equally embodied by

our actions. The prayers of Saint Stephen the new strength

in us. Remain faithful Christ's Church, whatever the cost to

ourselves may be. In the name of Father and Sun,

Holy Spirit. Amen.

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visit Holy Nunciation Orthodox Church at www dot Denunciation, tx

dot com, and please join us again next week.